The Unknown
by Akira M
Summary: PostNaraku. Tricked by his servant, Sess joins the group in their final attempt to complete the Jewel. His presence starts chain of strange events and behaviors, ranging from blind love to blind jealousy and fury…enjoy. SangoSess
1. What we dream about

Important: Kinkylittlelady69–thank you!

Disclaimer:

So they surrounded me, and the hanoyu put a blade against my neck. "Say that," he hissed and pressed harder. "So do you think you own us, human?" Sesshomaru's poisonous claws were on my throat too. "I will never let you!" Kagome pointed her arrow in my hart, "Shippou, bite her in the ankle! This will teach her!"

"No, you got it wrong! I don't own you, and would never..." "You got this one right!" Sango cut me off and glared, a dagger flashed in her hand. "And now go, and write." She pointed towards my laptop with disgust. "And better make it good, human" Sesshomaru added as Inuyasha slowly moved his sword away from my neck. "Feh," he added, and the group left my room…

ooOoo

**Title**: Unknown

Chapter 1: What we dream about but what we afraid to admit.

ooOoo

She looked at her village and shivered. 'So empty, so sad…" she sighed and closed her eyes. The dry wind of the night brushed against her face, and she smiled. The breeze coaxed the trees to whisper as it pulled at her kimono, making her feel stronger and more defined somehow. It was a pleasant and complementing feeling. How strange…_Why would I be stronger now, why my body would like to feel more substantial and alive? _A sudden thought enter her mind, and she froze_. I dream of the death as often as the dead yearn to be alive again. _She thought _Only the dead dream of being alive, _she lifted her hand and touched her face, her eyes still shot. _'But maybe I am like dead already? Maybe that's why my body dreams of life…? _She opened her eyes and looked to the graveyard_. So is this where I should be? Is this where my body should rest?_ Enveloped in warm air, her thoughts were drawn to the darkest memories of her life. What brought these thoughts to her tonight? The graves, or perhaps her silent prayers for life?

But not the graves and not the emptiness of the village bothered the young woman the most. It was the feeling of loneliness, of being on her own, without a family, without warmness of the other people, without love…Sure, she could always count on trustworthy Kagome and Inuyasha, lecherous monk and sweet kitsune…but…

What she longed for, was someone in her life, someone to break the sleepless nights. _Is there someone out there?_ She asked herself every sleepless night. _Someone only for me? Someone who could set me free?_ She stared at the bright stars of the late summer night and waited for the sky to answer.

The gods never fatigued to respond. Never in her life had they bother to help her anyway, why would now be any different? Yet, she kept asking.

Sango shook her head and closed her eyes. Hope was a tricky thing, lived in her like an instinct or her identity, sometimes fading and slipping away, although, never dying. "I will find you, whoever you are…I will have my family, I will…" Taking deep breaths of the night, she lied down on the soft ground. The ground, like the final reminiscent of the hot day, radiated warmth, and the grass seemed so soft and inviting… like arms of a lover. She tried to imagine, how it would be, to rest in arms of someone who loved her; wrapped in strong, protective hold of a man…To give up the mask of masculinity, to stop act as if nothing was able to crush her, to trust someone enough to admit how much she really needed a support of other person… _I know that you are there somewhere, made only for me, waiting and longing, just for me…_

She dreamed of her ideal lover. Lost in her thoughts, she stared at the brilliant spectacle of the starry night and smiled. The stars seemed to be overpowering, dominating the whole world, and she felt like a tiny, almost nonexistent particle under the greatness of heavens. How was she to find her dream lover in this infinite world? She thought, balancing between her thoughts and dreams, falling asleep in the embrace of the soft grass like in the arms of her dream lover.

A light wind whispered into her ear, and the stars arranged into strange figures. Constellations moved somehow closer, as if trying to tell her something…A great secret? A mystery of life? She tried to listen, to force her eyes to look at the stars and read the hidden messages, but her eyes denied to obey any longer, and the gentle embrace of her dreams pulled her closer to sleep.

Under a brilliant sky, drowned in the dream world, Sango dreamed of the perfect love. And the gods listened in silence.

ooOoo

Kagome looked at herself in her small mirror. Bright blue eyes of a young woman looked at her and she smiled, _I look so much older than five years ago_…Sometimes she couldn't believe that her life was so twisted and complicated.

Sometimes she imagined her life as a great vine; a vine, which stretches somewhere from the ground, reaching far into the sky, towards the sun; A vine that startes its rots in dark depths of the unknown, drinks its waters from a river of life, and grows creating a complicated and convoluted pattern around her fate. But even if complicated and twisted, taking strange paths and directions, the general direction of a plant leads it always toward the sun. Like her soul that grows connected to the jewel and her life tangled in between complicated knots of time, it follows one general direction.

And Kagome knew it, she could feel it; her destiny fulfilling itself, drawing her stronger and stronger towards feelings, towards fight, towards final decisions that she had to face. Kagome thought about her life and her face tensed. A lovely smile left her and with one swift move of her hand she closed her little mirror and put it aside. She didn't want to look at herself at this moment.

That face that looked back at her from the mirror, this suddenly so mature face, her face…She did not want to think about how fast her face turned from the naïve fifteen year old plumpy-looking girly image into so adult and calm expression. A sadness and calmness, experience and longing –they were the major features of her new image. Maybe she looked like she used to, she had the same long hair, and the same blue eyes, but the naïve smile and the always-trusting expression was long gone.

She lied back on mat facing the fire. She thought again about her life and about her destiny. Bright faces of her friends and images of the past fights came to her. She knew that they changed her, as much as her involvement changed her friends and outcome of the fights. And she accepted it. She didn't have a choice; it was the past she was not able to return to.

But what about THE OTHER past, the one she was actually living in. should she even be here? Should she reject it and reject her destiny. Was she ready to act upon her feelings, upon the emotions that torn her soul every time he looked at her? Should she just wait the way she has been waiting for years? Was he her destiny? Was he the sun that drove her existence, was he the ultimate force that bound her life towards one direction? Am I ready to follow it? She curled into a fetal position and wrapped her arms around herself as if trying to calm uneasy feelings. A too familiar mixture of sadness and fear and perhaps hope overflow her ad Kagome closed her eyes again.

She thought about HIM and his eyes that like brilliant sunlight to her. And then she smiled, through the sadness and fear, she smiled and dreamed about flowers that grow colorful under the warm look of her sun.

ooOoo

Shippou growled loudly and smiled in his sleep. _Oh_, _Chocolate_, he cuddled closer to the pillow, and his belly felt suddenly much warmer. A small pink tongue sneaked out of his mouth, as if trying to catch sweetness of his dreams and eat it. A tiny moan escaped his lips and a great image of a giant chocolate bar took over his dreams. And it grew larger and became even sweeter and softer, and maybe even warmer, as the child put his face against the dreamy image…And the smile stayed on his face, because as the night progressed his dreams kept supplying him with the most alluring and frivolous thoughts the tiny kitsune's mind could ever produce, _Ice cram…hmmm_

ooOoo

Inuyasha looked at the girl who slept under _his_ tree, tidily enveloped in soft fabric of her sleeping bag. Her breath was slow, but deep and calm; traces of her sweet scent reached him, and the silver-hair hanoyu smiled. His features relaxed and softened, warm thoughts clouded at the back of his head, and cushioned his mind to sleep and allowed him to drift away… into a secret dreamy world.

World, where he finally felt strong and his confidence was a product of his strong spirit, not a defensive reaction of the rejected by his predecessors hanoyu; where he was strong and so mature, where his brother trembled in fear of his anger, and where his girl was so close, and where her warm skin was always in his reach… He imagined the smoothness of her skin under his fingers, and her delicate blush, sparkling eyes hidden beneath fragile couture of her dark eyelashes…he smiled dreamily and his hand slightly reached in the air, as if he could really touch the dream image of the delicate goodness. He could almost see her, and the smell he sensed before became incorporated within his dream, became her.

He stared at the perfection and suddenly felt urge to look in her eyes. Why? A swift thought pinched his mind and awoken from the perfect slumber. _Her eyes, what color are they?_ His brain supplied the question before he could inhibit the annoying thoughts. He frowned and the goddess disappeared form his dreams, and dreams left him, and Inuyasha opened his eyes to a dying fire and soft sounds of grasshoppers and their summer music…_Brown or Blue_? Lately, his perfect drams always ended this way-with a recurring annoyance. Why his dreams were chased away by the questions? As if he wanted to know the answers. He didn't, dammit! He didn't even want to ask the questions, then why? Completely sober and a little startled with the disobedience of his own mind, he looked around the camp to check if anyone noticed change in his behavior. No, everyone slept, even the forest stayed quiet and unmoved by the hanoyu's emotional battles with his unconscious self. Inuyasha stirred nervously on his tree and closed his eyes as if sleeping.

But his mind didn't let him_. Blue or brown?_ Inuyasha stayed frozen, angry, and unable to rest.

ooOoo

"_Miroku," a soft whisper came from her lips. "Yes, my love?" his dark violet eyes made her tremble as he kept her in his strong arms. "Miroku, please," her whisper become somewhat sorer as his fingers played with her skin, edging closely to her lover's belly. "Please…" _

" '_Please what,' my lady?" His dark laugh against her skin made her smile. His fingers fund their way towards her most sensitive spot, and she cried. "Please, make me yours…" he looked in her dark eyes and kissed her neck hard, almost painfully. "You already are mine, Sango…" he pushed her against the soft grass and lied on her. "Mine, Sango, say that." He could feel the curves of her brilliant body under him, could hear her little moans, smell her as he pushed his body against her…_

Inuyasha looked at the sleeping monk and frowned. _Not again… _

Miroku moaned something, his body wrapped in cocoon of violet robes and brown blanket moved slightly against the ground. "Feh, dream on, monk." Commenting on probability of Miroku's dreams fulfillment, the hanoyu only smiled evilly and closed his eyes.

ooOoo

Sesshomaru walked slowly through the dark forest towards the top of the mountain. He didn't rush, savoring the taste of the night air. His silver fur almost glowed in the starlight as he quietly stopped at the top of a large rock. He looked around; the darkness enveloped his kingdom and held it quiet; moving his head towards the stars, his red eyes glowed in darkness like fire.

He stood still facing an ocean of stars, as if challenging the skies. He against the night, against the stars and heavens. He was never afraid of gods. After all, they never interfered with his life, and he never disturbed their peace. Never begged, or prayed, never foolishly wished or pretended to bargain with fate. He was the sole creator of his own destiny and life, he didn't need to cry for things, he didn't need to serve anyone.

Because he would never beg, he would never follow.

And only in times like this, when his wildest side emerged challenging the darkness, he listened.

The moon called him and the wind carried a soft whisper. The demon listened, sensitive to every detail of the tale; A tale of freedom and loneliness; filled with magical scent of the ancient forest and sweet aroma of wild roses, the wind kept alluring the great demon with old tales of life and love that can be told only by the starry summer night.

ooOoo

A/N: So how did you like it?


	2. Brothers in Arms

**  
Title**: The Unknown

Chapter 2: Brothers in Arms

ooOoo

It was only an hour or two before she would reach her friends, before she would join the quarrelling, friendly, and messy group, before she would arrange her face in a light mask of happiness and silliness that everyone would accept, and before everyone would smile at her and ask if she was all right. It was only an hour before she would smile back and say softly: "Yes, thank you, I am fine."

But now, she walked. Stepping on a green carpet of the forest, smelling a bitter aroma of the moist wood and forest ground, Sango thought of her childhood. Words of on old lullaby slowly filled her mind, a soft voice of her mother entered her memory, and suddenly, Sango felt like a child again. Sweetly and softly, Sango hummed the melody, and she could almost feel the presence of her mother and her warm hands on her skin, light of fire in their hut, and warm voice of Kohaku calling her name.

She repeated the lyrics of the song with a smile, like a sacred mantra or an ancient charm against forgetting. Sango lost herself in comforting reminiscence. _Once you are with me you are mine, my child/ Once I am with you, the world belongs to us,/ World is all we have, you and me… _She couldn't remember more, just the short piece of the song, but melody and the feeling of her mother hand on her forehead clung to her like a second skin, enveloping Sango with memories and long forgotten feelings…

ooOoo

Something awoken him. A feeling? No, a smell…

Her smell drew him to her. No, not even her smell. What allured him the most was the coppery aroma of her blood that flew in the evening air like magic. Almost undetectable, it came to him carried on the wings of the evening air, like a sophisticated invitation. It called to him and teased playing with his senses, incited to enter her small human world and take it.

At the beginning it was only a hint of her presence, an elusive delicate smell that was brought to him with the summer breeze and that charmed him with its soft feminine undertones. It played on the edge of his consciousness and fueled his growing hunger, his desire for flesh blood. She was his, regardless of who she was. He tried to imagine how she looked and how her flesh will taste…For she was the chosen one for today, the prey of the evening—and he would never give up on her now. He wanted her, therefore, it was as if her flesh had already had his name on it; name that was written with her own human blood on the surface of her white skin.

ooOoo

He ventured deeper into the forest and fear and terror filled followed each step of his. It spread in the air like a disease or famine. Manchi of the South, a member of the southern Inu clan, _the_ lord of the South Village entered the Inuyasha's forest. The hunt was about to begin.

He smiled, following slowly the new scent. It led him here, to a narrow wild path created by shy inhabitants of this forest. But even the wild animals and smaller demons didn't dare to approach him; they stayed hidden in the deepest caves and between the dark roots of ancient trees. And those low creatures that didn't have enough skills or strength to detect him before, now tried to flee desperately, or make themselves invisible among the safety of dark-green forest floor and bushes, breathless from fear. As f the forest could protect them, or the shadows could grant them safety. _Pitiful_, he thought with a smirk, _but of little consequences._

For tonight, the prey has already been selected.

ooOoo

A small demon stood in the dark passage on the back of the castle hiding from suspicious glances of guards and servants. The heavy rain soaked his dark clothing but nothing in this world held the power to force him to abandon his post. Not now, when they were so close…he knew he should not worry too much, the welcoming darkness of the night along with his great knowledge of the deepest and darkest secrets of the castle granted him some safety—at least from uninvited stares of passerby demons and nosy creatures of the night.

He stayed alert and focused as the rain numbed all sounds and scents in the area. He scanned his surroundings carefully, aware of each suspicious movement of wind and detecting even the smallest scents and sounds from the castle and courtyard. _Nobody must now about me here…Nobody_ , his eyes flashed with fear and momentary panic at a thought that someone would learn about their plan.

His face was hidden under an oversized hood, but nothing, even the long coat was not able to conceal the violent quivers of his body as he thought about his master, and what his master would do to them if he learn the truth… _He can never know_, he mused wrapping his cloak tighter around his shoulders, as if the gesture could make him safe or perhaps invisible for the eyes of his master. _Not until is too late…_

"Is he back?" A voice whispering next to his ear brought the small demon back to reality; in the darkness of the castle, a strange whisper made him tremble even more.

"No, not yet. Tonight he went to wander the wild steps of the West…But he may be back at any moment, I never know what he chooses to do..." The small youkai answered and stirred trying to fish an outline of his visitor from the surrounding them darkness. But his visitor preferred to say hidden carefully choosing the shelter of night above the gaze of the green demon.

"You are late, where have you been?" Trying not to show how his body trembled under the weight of their plan and eventual punishment, the tiny green demon folded his arms waiting for explanations.

"It took me days to find the witch and persuade her to teach the spells to me, but I got them!" the newcomer's voice vibrated through the dark alley with a suddenly loud outburst of pride and excitement.

"Shhoosh! If somebody hears us, he will skin us alive, you fool," the small creature hissed irritated.

"I know, I am sorry, my friend." The vice quieted down, "What I wanted to say, I fulfilled my duty, and I got the spell. Did you do as planned? Did you leave him the message?"

"Yes, he shall find my letter in his chambers as soon as he is back. We don't have much time now. We have to prepare." The green demon said with a deadly tone staring into dark space in front of him. "You should come with me. Where the hell are you, Myoga?" he looked around, his tremors and fear not possible to hide any longer. "Myoga!" he almost jelled as he felt a sharp pain on the skin of his neck.

"Here, my friend…" Myoga smiled and wiped blood from his mouth as the eyes of a small green demon rested on his. "I know you fear, but we don't have a choice. We have been waiting for too long for something to happen. We have to do that. We have take control of their lives, Jaken."

ooOoo

Jaken walked towards his underground chambers. This was the only place Jaken could feel safe in those days; in the dark and moist passages of the ancient catacombs, which nobody visited any longer…no one but him. The passages were so old that most of the inhabitants of the castle didn't even knew about them, and those demons who knew about the crypts were too afraid of the ancient courses and spirits to venture there. Nobody with a right mind dared to disturbed the ancients whose bones have rested here from centuries or maybe thousands of years.

But Jaken walked further growing calmer and relaxed with each step. He wasn't afraid of the dead and he wasn't afraid of their curses. Only the living were worth of his fear.

Besides, it was a safe place, where the dead whispered their secrets to him and where _he_ would never come. _He_, the one against whom they united and plotted, the one who was his savior and his master, the one whose power was too great for his own good. _He_ hated the dead. Sesshomaru preferred the power of life and the legends of the living.

ooOoo

It was easy to find her. She was quiet, he noticed, but didn't mask her scent at all. Gently bending delicate branches of the young trees, he studied his human prey. Female, lean and young; he tilted his head to have a better view of the woman. Noticing her gear and weapon, a dark brow rose: _What do we have here… A huntress, perhaps? _

"Well, my little lady, ready yourself, because your time came…" Manchi whispered and licked his lips, hidden in dark-green shade of the three, "Come, my little one, come closer…"

ooOoo

Sango walked trough the forest, slowly moving east. After the whole day of steady march, her muscles felt sore, and her skin and uniform almost melted in the sun fusing into one sweaty and incredibly tacky layer. She dreamt of a bath in cool waters of a river, but she knew that she shouldn't rest. She was too close to rest now.

Following the wild path, aware of how close she was to the village, she allowed herself to relax. But suddenly, an overwhelming power reached her senses. Sango stood abruptly. Something was wrong. _Oh, gods, what is that?_ Her mind raced as a striking cold aura paralyzed her. "A demon?" No lower demon could emit such youki; it numbed her senses and pushed against her skin like a knife. Standing still and trying to recover from the shock, Sango focused on her next move. _Is that an attack?_ Her left hand slowly reached for the hiraikotsu, as her right arm extended in front of her in a defensive stance. Narrowing her eyes, she scanned the area in front of her. She tuned her senses to the paralyzing energy, and shivered at the coldness of the demonic energy.

A realization hit her. "Oh gods!" There was only one type of demons that possess this type of youki…_Inu_.

ooOoo

Her childhood lullabies disappeared in one moment and the scattered memories of her mother escaped leaving her nothing but cold panic. Too shocked to fear, she waited. Here she was, almost physically paralyzed by a youki of a demon that she couldn't even see, and who didn't even decided to attack her yet. He observed her waiting for her moves. Standing there and staring at the darkness of the unreadable forest, she shifted into a defensive stance, her katana ready for attack.

Counting her breaths to distract herself from the fear that slowly awoken in her chest, Sango swallowed hard. Inu demon attacking her in the middle of the Inuyasha forest, — this whole situation was too strange, too dangerous, almost too bizarre to be real. She shook her head, strengthened her grip on the weapon, and waited for his next move.

The warm wind stopped and the forest became silent, a voiceless witness to his hunt, a tacit mourner to his victim. In the dark silence, Sango could hear the loud beat of her own hart. A drop of sweat flew down her spine.

Each her breath felt like an eternity and she suddenly realized that her chest became absurdly shallow, and her breaths didn't supply enough air to her lungs any more, as if the air around her wanted to suffocate her. _Don't panic, easy, Sango_… she calmed herself, but thousands of crazy thoughts swam through her brain bringing new waves of odd facts and old dreams, disconnected from reality pieces of information, images from her past …

Attack. Her father. His voice lecturing her… _Attack-_an aggressive action against a person with weapons or armed force, typically in a battle or war, attempt to injure or kill.. his face next to her holding a bloody knife and smiling at her. '_Your first hunt, Sango. The youkai didn't stand a chance against you, my girl._' His eyes so close to her that she could smell his sweat '_Someday, Sango, you will be the best_.' And then the blood again, the graves…

_No! Stop that_! _Wake up Sango!_ She shook of the odd thoughts and strengthen the grip on her katana. _The youki is growing. He will attack_…_one_, she counted the seconds to his strike and crouched ready to wield her weapon. _Two_, his youki jumped as if physically striking her, _he is so close now… _

_Three!..._ The world pulsed as she registered his form jumping at her. His dark silhouette covered her form like a shadow, and lonely small beams of the sunlight reached her from between the trees. The lights playing with the tree leaves and strangely warm gust of wing on her face, his rising form… The images in her head spun and blurred into one mixing into one wild form, form without a true shape, but emerging with a screaming color. Color that splashed on her face and covered her hands overtaking her vision. Red.

_Blood_—was the last conscious thought in her mind as she swung her sword aiming at his face.

The air vibrated with the scream. Forest bloomed with blood.

ooOoo

Myoga hidden deeply in the depths of his friend's cloak stayed silent waiting patiently for a better and safer place to discuss their plans. With his eyes closed, he listened to the strong heartbeat of the greenish creature. He didn't want to think. In fact, he repelled all possible thoughts, all possible outcomes of their plans. He knew that if they started to think what can go wrong, how _he_ would punish them, or how his spies could listen to their secret conversations, his own hart would stop petrified, frozen and dead in the face fear.

Because even if Myoga stayed focused only on their plan and only on this one outcome they planned together, his mind whispered to him_: Danger_.

ooOoo

A/N: I made minor changes in this chapter. Please, let me know what you think about the story so far…


	3. Fooling with Seshomaru

Title: The Unknown

Chapter 3: Fooling with Sesshomaru

ooOoo

The sun slowly dragged its gold face towards the far line of the horizon. The warm air vibrated over a dusty road like a cloud of insects, and the path seemed to extend mercilessly as the day progressed, and as the heat of the dirt burned their feet.

"Gods, how far do we have to go, Inuyasha?" Kagome's face look tired, her clothing was dusted and sweated; a bath in cool water was on the top list of her priorities now, exceeding every other need and wish; now, locating the jewel or finding Naraku paled into comparison with a cool reviving bath in clear waters of a forest river.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome knew that he heard her questions and only decided to ignore her to prolong the walk, "Inuyasha! I asked you a question!" Now her voice cared not only signs of the fatigue, but also a slight irritation. Inuyasha flattened his ears against his head automatically.

"All right, woman, just stop that drama! We haven't even walked for 20 miles today!" He kept complaining, but at the same time, he changed directions to lead them towards a small clearing, where they could start a camp. The spot was cooler than the rest of road, and the tall pines surrounding the clearing offered plenty of cool shadows. "Always tired! How weak can you be? Humans…" Inuyasha mumbled under his nose, as Kagome smiled at the hanoyu. "You know, Inuyasha, you are not all that bad." Inuyasha, pretending not to notice her smile nor her comment, turned his face away from her sight. But she knew, he couldn't hide it from her, even if he tried; he was blushing, and she smiled even wider. _Inuyasha_…

ooOoo

"How far are we from them?" Myoga asked sitting on Jaken's shoulder. The summer heat bothered him heavily.

"I don't know. I think we should be pretty close because Ah-Un caught the smell of his master." Jaken answered the small demon carefully observing the dragon. Ah-Un, sensing Sesshomaru's closeness, whirled his heads around, as if expecting to see his owner emerging from the skies. The dragon flew faster now, and Jaken had a hard time to control the beast. "Easy, Ah-Un, easy…you will see your master soon, but we are not going to him now, not yet." Jaken slowed down the dragon and ordered him to descent near the small clearing. "I think we are close enough now, don't you?" Ah-Un landed delicately on soft forest ground.

"And how far are we from Inuyasha, exactly?" Jaken shrugged his arms at the stupid question of his friend. "I have never met a demon who had worst instincts than you, Myoga." The flea demon had a rotten sense of directions, but he never really worried about it; after all, he used others as the means of the transportation.

"I didn't ask you to comment on my skills, you green fool, I asked how far we…"

"Yeah, I've heard you!" Jaken could only smile under his nose at his friend's reaction, "We are ten minutes from the place where Inuyasha and his companions are starting their camp. Now, we only need to wait for the guest of honor to show up…" He looked expectantly at Myoga. "Are you sure that we are doing the right thing?" He scratched his pointed beak in a nervous gesture, his eyes drilling into eyes of his friend. "If we fail, we may loose everything, our lives being the tiniest price…"

Myoga looked back at Jaken. For the longest time they stared at each other, as if searching for shadows of doubts in themselves. They froze in their tacit exchange of thoughts, their faces strangely solemn and serious. And the moment lasted, their silence disturbed only by the warm wind playing lightly in the trees and the grasshoppers singing their summer melody and drunk with the heat and summer…

"Let's start." Myoga said calmly ending the quiet moment. "We have no time to waste."

ooOoo

"Inuyasha," Kagome stretched lying on the soft green grass, "When, do you think, Sango will be back?" It felt so good to rest, "She should be back by now, right?"

The hanoyu shrugged, "You know that she always takes her time when coming back to her village." He didn't want to say anything else, but he knew how hard it was for the slayer to go mourn all her family and how tough it had to be to leave them behind. "She will be back, Kagome, don't worry," he said with some strange warmth in his voice. Kagome turned her head at him, but this time she couldn't read his thoughts. Was the new tone of his voice trying to calm down her worries, or was it a voice of affection towards the slayer? She kept her eyes on him, but he glazed at the forest not saying anything. His face was blank and empty. The girl stared at him, surprised how alike he was to his brother right now.

She sit up. "What are you thinking about, Inuyasha?" her voice was quiet and shy, "Do you think of Sango?" Her voice shook lightly, but nobody noticed, it was too quiet. _I have to stop it…_She closed her eyes feeling disgust with herself. She envied Sango the friendship that gave his voice the soft tone when the hanoyu spoke of the exterminator. How wrong it was…

Inuyasha didn't notice Kagome's change of emotions; he ignored her questions, and stayed oblivious of her staring at him. Yes, he was thinking of the slayer, and yes, he thought of her often. But thinking of Sango was only a mean to get to his other thoughts, other memories. Images, where dark eyes of his mother looked at him with warmth and love, and where was no other feelings, but her acceptance and sweet affection. And then he thought of what happened next with her. How her love and life were ended with one thrust of a sword in her chest. And how long it took to heal his own heart and let go of the pain. But, on the other side, did he ever…?

ooOoo

Miroku observed the interaction between his friends. Kagome quieted down, suddenly sad and empty; Inuyasha, leaning against a tree stared at the horizon, blind to anything else. The monk crouched in front of pile of wood that he prepared for the evening and pulled out several branches to start a fire. His thought flew away, and he smiled as he thought of his Sango. Will she be here soon? He felt a shiver of emotions at the image of the girl. _Oh, Sango_…How he could offer her support and heal her wounds, how he could comfort her and hold in his arms. Miroku smiled sweetly at his dreams…

ooOoo

The group rested in silence, waiting for sun to settle down and the heat to cool off. The sunset painted golden images of clouds on the sky and dresses the forest in orange and red tones. The grasshoppers grew louder, and the friends stayed silent, absorbed deeply in their thoughts, listening to the undying melody of the wind.

"What do you want from me, half breed?" A blood-freezing hiss cut through the afternoon warmth, and eyes of everyone turned towards the source of the voice. The silence deepened as the realization fell upon the group. Sesshomaru.

Inuyasha was the first to react as he stood up placing his hand on his sword. "What is that you want, Sesshomaru?" It didn't seem to be a question, but a harsh command.

"Don't fool with me, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed slightly sparkling with anger. "You are the one who had the audacity to call me here, you answer the question _why_. And better have a good reason for disturbing my peace, half bred, for my patience for you is running thin…" His voice, cold and quiet, pierced the silence again, however, this time followed by Inuyasha's annoyed snarl.

"Fool," the hanoyu's eyes looked straight into Sesshomaru's, "Why would I want you here? I never called upon you." Saying that, Inuyasha raised his chin up and smirked, "I am afraid, dear brother you were misinformed. Now, you may leave, Sesshomaru." Content with his words, the half-demon waited for reaction of his half-brother.

And he didn't wait for long, for this was enough for Sesshomaru to throw his cool composure aside and attack the hanoyu with full speed and abilities that the demon possessed.

Without pulling his Tojikin from it's sheath, he dashed towards his brother and before the hanoyu could react, Sesshomaru hold him in air by his throat while clasping at his right hand to prevent Inuyasha from pulling out his weapon. "You seem to forget your place, half-breed. The fact that I have been tolerating your pitiful existence for long enough does not mean that you can talk to me as if you were equal to this Sesshomaru." His eyes, narrow as they were, sparkled with red light. "And now," he relaxed his fingers around Inuyasha's throat and let his body fall to the ground, "You will explain the meaning of this…" As Inuyasha was trying to put himself together after the fall, Sesshomaru reached into his sash for a piece of parchment.

"What the hell?" Inuyasha looked puzzled as he stared at the neatly folded paper. "What is that?"

"You tell me! It has your name on it, half breed." Sesshomaru unfolded the paper and put it in front of Inuyasha's face. The younger sibling frowned as his eyes scanned the document, "Feh, it was not me Sesshomaru, you should know better-it is not my handwriting!"

"Inuyasha, what is that?" Shippou could not stay silent as his ears stood high up to listen to the weird exchange of words between the brothers.

"A letter asking Sesshomaru to meet me here today to discuss some family matters." Inuyasha read the letter and his face tensed as he thought of who could write that letter and why. "Sesshomaru," he said in a calmer voice, "it was not me who asked you to come here…"

"If not you, that who?"

"Feh, I don't know! I thought that you were the one who keeps everything under control! But apparently you can't even keep pranks and foolish letters under control! Feh!"

"Watch your tongue, Inuyasha!" Sesshomaru didn't like where this conversation was going.

"I will say what I want, and you have no right, you bloody asshole to show up here and accuse me of stuff I didn't do! Just do me a favor and piss off, Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha yelled, his hand back on the handle of his sword.

"Fine, half-breed, you asked for it!"

"O, yeah?" Inuyasha started with a mocking expression on his face, "And what will you do to me, you stupid heartless pimp?"

"Not much, only kill you." Sesshomaru expression didn't change.

"No, dear brother, the one who shall die today is you."

Suddenly Sesshomaru's expression changed, and he turned his head towards the woods. Sniffing the air, he frowned. _Blood_…A distinct smell of blood crept into the air and roused his senses; Blood so fresh that he could almost sense its warmth on his skin. The coppery aroma of the fresh mortal combat kept insulting his senses, fed his anger and inflamed his rage. Yes, this smell, this delicious sweet aroma was a perfect addition to the simple scenery of their battlefield. The forest, the abominable troupe of humans and demons, and the smell of blood…This was a perfect setting for him and his low-life half-brother to end their foolish quarrels.

ooOoo

"You are standing on your grave, Inuyasha," this time, no distraction could stop him from showing his stupid brother the consequences of toying with Sesshomaru. A low hiss escaped his mouth as he turned his eyes back at the hanoyu. "Today, you'll die." The sword flashed in his hand reflecting the golden rays of sunset as the demon glanced at the hanoyu with disgust. The tip of his sword pointed proudly towards the sky, his posture threatening with strength and radiating anger, his arm risen in the inevitable promise of death…Confident and ready for the attack, Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes searching for signs of fear or anger on his brother's face, but Inuyasha didn't look at him. In fact, his sword was down, and the hanoyu didn't pay the slightest attention to Sesshomaru's words.

Inuyasha stared at the same spot at which Sesshomaru looked a minute ago. But whereas Sesshomaru wore delighted and slightly fascinated look when he looked at the forest, Inuyasha's face reflected a pure horror of his thoughts. "Sango!" he shouted and, ignoring the fight with the demon, sped towards the edge of the clearing.

"What is happening, Inuyasha?" Kagome observed the whole situation unable to figure out what could move Inuyasha to step out from the fight. "Inuyasha!" She repeated as her white-hair companion stood at the edge of the forest with the sword in his hand but deadly still and focused, as if waiting for something.

"Its Sango…" Inuyasha whispered, "I can smell her blood…she is hurt, Kagome." He turned his head towards Kagome, "Kagome, prepare your healing supplies, fast!" with this, Inuyasha ran towards the source of bloody smell, Miroku and Shippou closely behind him leaving angry Sesshomaru forgotten.

Kagome run. A bag with her medical kit and a bottle of clean water bouncing against her legs as she tried to catch up with her friends. _Sango, please be all right_! She pleaded in her thoughts, "Oh Kami, please don't let her to be hurt," Kagome whispered over and over small chants of hope. But even they died in her throat, while she realized that everyone stopped now. They all looked at a strange figure, which stood shakily under one of the trees.

What was perhaps a second, but what seemed to Kagome like painful eternity, she stared at the covered with dirt and blood persona. Kagome's hart almost stopped as she recognized her dearest friend behind the veil of thick blood and swollen bruises. Sango half crawled-half walked towards them seeking support of trees. The group looked at her as Sango desperately clenched to a trunk of a young breech, her hands leaving a rusty imprint on the surface of the tree. The woman stood quietly for a while trying to gather some strength. She breathed hard and with effort, her other arm clamped on her belly and covered with the fresh blood.

Kagome gasped and cried something as she run to support her friend, but Sango stopped her with a decisive movement of her palm, "Wait…" she breathed harshly.

"Sango, what has happened, what…" Kagome, still in slight shock, tried to comprehend Sango's message.

"Inu"…Sango attempted to straighten up, but a painful yelp escaped her mouth. "An Inu demon." She breathed hard. Each single attempt to talk was agonizing to the degree that her speech was not longer fluent, but broken into single words, mingled with muffed moans.

"Stop that, Sango!" Inuyasha was the first one to run and take his friends in his arms, dragging her towards the center of their camp. "Lie down, first we have to take care of your wounds!" He tried to act cocky and bossy, but even he could see the extent of her injuries. The slayer was half conscious and bleeding heavily; he could only imagine the degree of her internal bleeding and damages as he looked at the girl with worry.

"No, wait" Sango looked at Inuyasha, her eyes half-closed. "Inu demon…he attacked me…there may be more of them…" the words died on her lips as the remaining strength within her body drifted away leaving her unconscious and broken.

Kagome stared at Inuyasha. He looked back at the girl, the limp form of their friend still clutched in his arms. Hanoyu stared in Kagome's eyes, the argument with his brother suddenly so unimportant, forgotten.

"Kagome," He stared in blue haze of her eyes, "Can you help her?" Something in his voice almost made her cry. A hope and plead, as if the perspective of loosing his friend could break his heart. Kagome wasn't sure if the hanoyu's heart could break if Sango would not recover, but she was sure that her own would die, scattered into million pieces of sorrow and sadness.

ooOoo

A/N: Hey, do you like so far?


	4. Life is a Demon

The Unknown

Chapter 4: Life is a Demon

She wasn't sure how and when, but suddenly, she realized that she was engulfed by a shadowy emptiness. It was so strange… like being put into a state of gray nonexistence, pure nothingness. Her body floated in the eminent grayness—her body that somehow felt like no-body…

How did it feel then, she wondered trying to focus on perception of anything around her. She thought if "floating" was a right word to describe what she felt, and she wasn't sure. She could called it that, if this sensation was a real feeling, but since it reminded her more of "nothing" than of a feeling, she didn't dare to name her state of this specific "non-being." She wasn't even sure if she should risk analyzing her state, because since her current state was closer to nothingness than to existence, did she really exist?

_Wait_.

Was she dead then? A surprised with this new development, she considered her options. First, if she was alive, she should have a body. Nope, her thoughts were still frozen in gray nothingness, no body detected. Well, so what's next? Oh…the second option should be considered: the death…but if death proclaimed her body, why her thoughts were still alive?

So was she dead or alive?

_Tricky_.

She couldn't find the answer, so she decided to analyze the facts again. After all, is she was alive, she had to find her body and find the way out of the great nothingness. And if she was dead…well, she wasn't sure what then, rally. _But now, _she reminded her self as her thoughts dissociated from the main course_, lets go back to facts. _

ooOoo

"Kagome!" The dying girl slipped slowly from his arms.

"Sango!" Kagome's voice was high pitched and already filled with tears, "Sango, please, Sango…" the girl didn't now what she was begging for or whom, but she knew that nothing and none could help now. Inuyasha circled his fingers on Sango's wrist, not caring that every time he touched her, her blood stained his pristine-white hair and perfectly smooth skin. "Sango…" he whispered as he observed her cinnamon eyes turning pale and muddy. The last sparkles of light died in them with her last breath, her heart stopped in dead silence. And it was when the realization hit him:

Sango, the last tajiya of the West, was dead.

Inuyasha stood over the cold battered body of his friend, his face covered with his hear hidden form everyone. His thoughts, in spite of the shock of her death, were strongly similar to those he carried with him for years…the pictures of his mother's cold corpse, the reminder of the smell of her blood triggered by the stench of death that covered the whole clearing now.

How strange, that he never thought of how terrible it was to die, to feel the coldness of death overwhelming the body. He recalled like just a minute ago she tried to say something, to protect and warn them, like his mother died to save him…To depart this life being scarred about others. But what else did they have? What Sango has in life except worry? Did she even feel her own pain when she was dying, or was she scared, terrified?

He looked at her again, her face so cold now, almost unrecognizable, as if the most characteristic feature of the young woman was the sparkle of life, which she always carried with her, like her emblem or insignia of her survival.

He kept staring in her face, unaware of Kagome's head on his arm and her tears staining his old robe. Yet, he instinctively wrapped his arm around the girl, allowing her sorrow to add to his sadness. He offered her his support, even if his strength was so thin as the evening air. _Don't cry, Kagome, don't cry…_

He didn't even see Miroku crouching strangely next to Sango's pale body, the monk's face blank and almost dead. The young man stood up, his eyes closed, "I refuse, Sango. I refuse to accept your death…" he said quietly through his clenched teeth, and his expression changed into a wild frown. He took a step back, trying to stay away and distance himself from the corpse, _no it was not his woman_. No, she was no the one he loved, the one he adored was alive; _this corpse was not his Sango._

Each of them, wrapped in their own thoughts stayed silent, focused on the pale face of the dead slayer, oblivious to the night that surrounded them now. Only the demon lord stayed away, disgusted but also strangely saddened by the situation. _Humans_…

The silver moon slowly appeared on the velvet of the sky.

And then, he felt it. A pulsation like a stroke of pure light went through his body, and Sesshomaru tensed. The energy pulled him closer to the grieving group, his sword emitting a blue light and drawing him towards the dead girl. The demon narrowed his eyes, _What do you see, Tenseiga, why her?_ Her lifeless form, covered in moonlight, still carried the signs of her battle. Sesshomaru, moving her surprised friends aside, walked closer to the girl. Her face seemed so peaceful, so motionless, like one of those perfect depictions of gods on walls of human temples.

He stared at her, still fighting the power of the sword, even if he knew that his battle was already lost; he could not deny the will of Tenseiga.

He touched her face, fascinated as her dark blood coated his finger.

With her blood on his hands, he looked up and growled. Spirits of death. The light creatures of death were dancing around the slayer in a crazy celebration of her death, feeding on her soul.

With one fast move, he stood up, and with his bloody hand he draw Tenseiga form it's sheath.

Inuyasha looked at him, still lost in the situation, not understanding what his crazy brother is attempting. "You will not disgrace her body!" Inuyasha started, his hand back on his sword. "You sick bastard…" his words died in his throat, however, as the hanoyu took in the actions of the demon.

Sesshomaru, calling in all his youki, with his hair moving in waves on the wind of his strange powers, sliced thorough the air above the dead girl. The light from his sword illuminated the most strange and terrifying pictures; images of thin dark creatures that circled madly over Sango's corpse. Their black mouth, silent in the darkness of the night, were arranged in weird expressions, as if they were screaming or singing a death song for the girl. A little sparkles of energy glowed in their eyes as they run from the demon's sword. Escaping towards the darkness, they kept staring at Sesshomaru in a silent promise of revenge: "If not now, we will get her later…" they seemed to scream at him, mocking him with their grinning faces.

"Oh gods! Who are they?" Kagome whispered with her pale lips, trembling as she stared at the dark forest where the spirits of death disappeared. She looked at Miroku and at Inuyasha, then her eyes moved slowly towards the demon. She stared at him, waiting for his answer, but he chose to stay silent. The group, including the Inu lord, gazed upon the pale body at their feet. Kagome followed their eyes and froze in fear.

Sesshomaru's energy maneuvered it's way into Sango's body, overtaking her moves, like a magician pulling on strings of a lifeless doll's body.

The body moved. It slightly trembled, like in terrible pain, taken over by the energy of the demonic sword. It shook in the clenches of the forceful energy, which pulsated within her in the rhythm of the demon lord's youki. Kagome stood with her eyes wide open mesmerized by the strange show.

ooOoo

"Do you smell their blood, my friend?"

"I am not sure…" Myoga sniffed gently the night air and smiled, "Yes, I detect Inu's blood on the hanoyu and different, more human-smelling blood on our lord." He looked at Jaken, "I think we are ready. Each carries the blood of another on their hands," Jaken smiled madly, "I think that the blood will give us enough bond for the spell to work!" he hissed in excitement.

"Are you sure that this is enough?"

"Do you know any other bond stronger than blood of two siblings?" Jaken looked carefully at his friend, "Myoga, there is too late to go back now."

"Let's proceed." He whispered and reached for a small parchment. He tried to cover his fear with bossiness, but every fiber of his body, every single cell and nerve were trembling in dread. But he wouldn't step out from his role, not now. _I will unite them, even if it will cost me my life._ He looked at the flea demon and handed him the small parchment. He didn't have to look at it, he already knew the verses. By now, they were written n his heart..

ooOoo

It was a painful and truly cruel. But, Kagome couldn't deny, it was also strangely hypnotizing. She couldn't take her eyes off the demon and the corpse as they united in the dance of his demonic powers.

She didn't see anything else, she didn't notice anyone else.

And frankly, no one did; Not even the demons or the hanoyu saw two small figures that slowly approached the group. Staring at Sango's body, they did not see or hear two creatures, who chanted slowly their curses.

ooOoo

Sango wasn't sure if anything was real any more; she tried to focus on something, but she forgot on what…Her thoughts kept running away from her, and her mind seemed to float over the gray nothingness, unconcerned with the logic that kept escaping her. Slow echoes of her own conscious mind gently kept bringing different questions, but the subjects never seemed serious enough to stay with her for long. She knew that there was something that she was supposed be concerned about, _something important happened, but what? Did it happen to me?_

ooOoo

They chanted in whisper, coming closer to the small gathering. The darkness covered everything, and they were not sure why the small of group of demons and humans stood there. Myoga raised his eyebrows as he noticed that the group stared at something in the center of the clearing. _What are they doing_? But he did not out too much thought into the behavior of the group, the fact that nobody paid attention to them was actually their advantage. Myoga narrowed his brows and smiled.

"NOW" he yelled as he threw a handful of golden dust towards the group. Through the dust, he could see surprised eyes of the humans and demons looking at him and hear Jaken's monotone voice, "The power that exist between the two will be ruling their lives till they understand," his quiet voice stroke them with a hidden power as the small demon continued with the spell: "The power will unite the two, the power will strengthen the bond, the power will bond them till death or till bond will be created within them!" The green demon shouted the last words looking wildly at Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. The brothers, surprised and bewildered by the strange behavior of two demons, just stared at the old servants. "Whet the hell…" Inuyasha started trying to understand what the small demons were playing at, but something stopped him. "Sango?"

ooOoo

Everything was calm and easy, her train of thoughts escaped long ago, end everything what was left was that overwhelming calmness in the depth of foggy space. She didn't even know who she was and what was her name any more. And at the same time the importance of her name and identity disappeared as well, giving it's way to thin breath of death, into which she was slowly dissolving.

Suddenly, a pulsation, a painful burst of energy shot through her like a bolt of life. It hurt. And if she knew how, she would stop it, for every part of her slowly dissolving entity protested against the forceful energy that somehow obliged her thoughts and consciousness to come together, to form a thought and bring all the facts into a coherent conclusion, to realize that she was actually dying…She almost screamed, but she couldn't since she was strangely detached from her physical self. And a strange force, like a rape kept shaking her, forcing her to enter a painful dimension, to start feel again and smell and experience the limitation of her human body.

In one minute, her endless thoughts were pulled like a string back o her mind, her feelings attached back to something, what she realized, was her body. And she could finally scream, and she braced for a painful cry, but her chest allowed her only for a quiet moan. She opened her eyes and caught sparkles of blue light flying around her like blue fireflies. They vibrated around her strangely pulling towards a figure, which currently towered over her. She looked up, "No…" she whispered, oblivious of the spells and magical powders that were thrown in their direction, and which now covered her and the demon lord along with half of their friends.

"Sango?" she heard a voice next to her and looked in face of her dear friend "Inuyasha?" she let a sore whisper "What is going on? What happened?"

"Sango?" Kagome ignored a crazy couple of chanting demons and crouched next to her friend, "You are…" she brought her shaking hand to her mouth " You are…" she didn't dare to finish, it was impossible.

"She is alive." The cold voice reached them, and Sango brought her eyes up to meet golden stare of the demon lord.

"What?" Her voice came back and Sango pulled herself to a sit in the ground.

ooOoo

"Do you think it worked?" a beak of the green creature opened to whisper to his friend's ear.

"I don't know." Myoga's eyebrows narrowed, "But if it did work, he certainly will kill us. On the other side, if the spell didn't work, and they would learn what we attempted to do, he will kill us too…" The demon paused philosophically and looked at Jaken.

"In any turn of events, I say, let's run. We will let them to find out what happened and then they should take a few days to cool off, and then we can come back and explain them the details."

"And now?"

"And now, my friend, we better run, because if they will find out what we just did to them, we are dead..."

"Agreed" with this, the two demons slowly backed up from the clearing into the safety of the night.

ooOoo

A/N: Whoever reads and/or reviews my story, thank you. You make me write.


	5. Death Becomes Her

The Unknown

Chapter 4: Death Becomes Her

"What?" _I was **dead**?_ Sango was somewhat confused. She still didn't recovered from her strange "nothingness" state, and at the same time the memories of the fright with the foreign Inu demon slowly resurfaced. _Blood, her red rage and his snarls_…

And then Inuyasha's eyes and Kagome cry, yes she remembered a foggy image of the forest and her friends rushing to her side. And a minute later, everything went blank. Nothingness, the scattered memories of dissolving within the great gray space… "How strange…" she stared blankly into space trying to recall the events of this night. She didn't see the worried eyes of her friends or the cold stare of the Taioukai. And the pain, I felt it as if it bolted through her entire being and tied her together like a ragged doll and brought her up back form the nothingness to reality. Had _he_ caused her this pain? She moved her eyes up and focused at the calm face of the demon.

"Why are you here?" Something about his cold composure irritated her to no end. Her eyes cold as his, rested on his face, mirroring his blankness. "I asked you a question, demon" She was getting angry, not even realizing that there was no real reason for her to attack the youkai.

"Sango." Someone put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around to look at teary eyes of her sister. "He saved you…" Kagome didn't want to talk about the details of the whole ordeal, she was still shocked by Sango's unreal awakening.

"What do you mean?" So far, nobody bothered to explain why all of them thought that she had died. _Foolishness_, she felt perfectly alive. Looking for some empathy and perhaps explanation, she thought of someone, who always helped her, "Miroku?" Her eyes tried to lock on his, but he, the love of her life, the savior and tender friend, suddenly avoided her gaze.

"Miroku?" her voice was not persistent but almost begging. _What is going on?_

But he didn't look at her, even as he raised his head and faced her, his eyes didn't see her. It was as if he looked through her searching for some hidden evils in her soul. Hs eyes as dark as the night, and his stance resembling some unfinished move, undecided as if frozen between reaching for her and backing away from her form. His face pale and blank, with a thin grimace of fear and of something else settling on his features.

She observed as his expression changed under her silent gaze and turned into something so foreign for him that she almost missed it. A disgust.

"Miroku?" not a question nor plead, her voice expressed a pure surprise, "What are you…" she reached her hand toward the monk, but he backed away from her grasping on the beads of his rosary.

"You are not alive," he kept staring at her, his arm rising in a defensive pose, threatening to unleash his powers. "You are dead, like one of them… You are nothing more that death eater, a spirit of death…" he whispered with is pale lips.

Sango stared in confusion, no longer angry or surprised, but simply lost in the situation. "What is going on?" She looked around and her eyes rested at Inuyasha's, but the hanoyu did not pay any attention to her now; he stood silently facing his brother, "So this is what the sword does…" a gust of enlighten cracking in his voice. "It fights death spirits and defends humans against death, like my sword fights demons."

Sesshomaru chose to stay silent, only gold sparkles of light his eyes indicating his interest in the situation. He didn't say a word, but waited fro the hanoyu to realize the truth.

"You can bring the dead back to life." Inuyasha said flatly, surprised with his discovery. _So this is what it can do_…It was beyond anything, a power of an absolute being, to defend life and repel death. _Why the father gave him such a power, why!_ Inuyasha eyes glazed with anger, _I could do so much more!_ He looked down at Sango and thought of his mother once more. _Her white skin covered by the dark blood, her clothing, which were ripped to the extent that they didn't even mask the terror of her assaulted body; body that used to be so warm and alive_… like Sago right now.

"You…" his voice gripped with anger, "Why you?" he couldn't stop his anger.

Sesshomaru's face lightened up in evil smile of supremacy, "Because…" he almost smiled at the drama Inuyasha was going through now. It was the perfect moment to show the half-breed his superiority and break the fool to pieces; An anger grew within him as a next wonderfully sarcastic response came to his mind, "…my dear _half_-brother, I …"

"What?!" He never finished, however, as Sango gather her strength and stood up from the ground. She felt anger and some kind of agonizing desperation growing in her chest, and there was no way to suppress it; emotions tore her thoughts into a senseless cry. Focused at the brothers, she never noticed as Kagome moved aside in the reaction to her outburst, and how Miroku stepped further back into the darkness.

"How could I be dead? Look at me! I am alive." As if trying to prove her claim, she brought her arms up to them, calling to their senses. "I _am_ alive!"

Kagome stood still as Miroku stepped in, his face hidden behind the veil of the night, but his voice strong and sharp as a blade: "No! You are not her. You are not My Sango, I saw her die!" he hissed in madness.

"You are not her! I see that, I can see the demonic power around you, you..!" He breathed hard, "You are dead!"

ooOoo

Kagome observed Miroku as he moved away in revulsion. His dark robes seemed black, disappearing in the night. With each word, he moved away from the group, and almost disappeared among the shadows, his strange paled face and his lifted palm moving in the shadows like estranged ghost.

Inuyasha brought his eyes back on Sango. How was he supposed to explain it to her? His brew furrowed, and he exchanged a knowing look with his quiet sibling. "What do I tell her, Sesshomaru?" Suddenly there was attention in Inuyasha's voice, and his face expressed more than just pure jealousy and anger. _Help her_.

"You…" the demon lord, even if surprised with Inuyasha's change of attitude, did not change his tone. "…were claimed by death, huntress."

ooOoo

The realization embraced her like a cold silk. It captured her and kept her immobile as she stared into his amber eyes. Her lips paled, and the images of the past hours came back to her in a stream of coherent pictures once more. "Oh, gods!" she cried with strangely high voice like a woman mourning death, her body shaking in silent sobs.

"Oh gods…" She felt as if her chest would burst in pain, "I died…" she stared around at the faces of her friends as if looking for support or denial of what she already knew.

Nobody answered her, no one even tried. The silence rattled in her ears as none of her friends dared to say anything.

Only the demon lord, as if the silence and her pain left an emblem on his conscience, took a step closer towards the woman and with a slow and delicate move, he touched her face with his fingers. This touch, surprisingly gentle, brought her attention to his face. Now she, almost scared and confused even more, looked at him.

"But now, you are alive. Do not forget…" She kept staring in pale face, mesmerized by his words, as if they contained some secret message.

ooOoo

Shippou never let his eyes of Sango. Even as he followed Kagome's request and hide behind the trees during the brothers' argument, the child stayed alert. His sensitive ears caught each piece of conversation between the brothers, his nose detected the wrecking smell of Sango's blood when Inuyasha carried her broken body back to their camp, and his demonic instinct advised him to stay quiet as Sango was brought back to life.

Now, his naïve brown orbs following each her move and gesture. _Don't cry, Sango_… He could only imagine how she felt as Miroku abandoned her and as everyone stared at her in shock. But she did not do anything wrong, right? She just died and than walked up…_They should be happy, she should be happ_y…Shippou gathered all his strength and courage and approached the group. "Sango?" his voice was small and sounded even more childish than usual.

She faced him and smiled weakly at the boy.

"Sango, I was so worried…" his voice cracked as he tried to stop tears threatening to spill up from his eyes. Sango kneeled next to him and put her arms around the child, "Shippou, thank you…Thank you so much," She was the one who was crying now, tears and weeping overtaking her like an ocean wave, uncontrollable and wild.

Shippou embraced her hard, giving her all his strength as his mind raced around the events of this night. _Does she know? Did anyone even notice what THEY did to them?_ It seemed that he was the only one to be aware what the two small demons did to his friend. _Should I say something now?_ He looked at Sango, _She is troubled enough…Besides, soon she will notice…they all will. _Helowered his head in poor attempt to hide his face.

They stayed like this, their cry dying and calming them both. Sesshomaru contemplated the sight before his eyes. _A demon comforting a demon slayer_, surprisingly, this thought did not come with usual sarcasm, but with strange acceptance. The mere child, little and so inexperienced seemed to be the wisest of them all and containing the greatest courage as he soothed the slayer and placated the fears within her.

The kitsune released his hold on Sango and smiled again, "Don't worry, Sango, I will be always here…" he stepped back, his face flushed lightly from the emotions that overtook both of them. Trying to focus on situation, Shippou turned his head around. Inuyasha, Kagome, and Sesshomaru stood firmly planted to the ground, observing the unexpected exchange of emotions between the two.

"You should rest, huntress," a cold voice cut the silence. Sesshomaru took a step closer to Sango, "You are tired." He did not let his eyes to leave Sango's figure at any time, following each her step. When Kagome finally reached for her friend and led her to the fire, the demon lord stayed close, situating himself a few steps from the taijiya.

ooOoo

The night almost passed, but no one thought of sleep. Sango sat quietly staring at the fire, Sesshomaru leaned against a tree, his eyes steadily planted only at her. Kagome and Inuyasha looked at the young woman, surprised with the attention the demon lord was giving her.

The night passed and the brightening sky changed its colors from dark blue to unbelievable yellow and gold. The terror of the past diminished slightly as the sun put a new light on the scenery of the forest. All seemed much clearer and more comprehensible now. The scatters of clouds covered some of the eastern sky playing with the morning birds. It looked like a beautiful, almost perfect morning.

_Almost_. Inuyasha was pissed off. He tried to accept that his swords has a lesser… no, _different_ powers, and wanted to be grateful towards his half-brother for saving his great friend, but something within him was twisting as he looked at the stoic youkai sitting by their campfire. Too perfect-looking, silent and strong…_Fuck that_. _ …_He wanted him out. _Now_.

"Why are you still here?" Sesshomaru did not even look at him.

Inuyasha groaned, "I asked you a question!" He stood up to look at the silent form of his brother. "This is my camp and I …" His hand found its way to his weapon, small sparkles of anger playing dangerously in his eyes, "…I will not tolerate you here, Sesshomaru. I don't care what you just did; one good deed cannot buy you my forgiveness or sympathy. Get out!"

Sesshomaru moved his eyes briefly at the hanoyu only to rest his gaze back on the slayer. "No."

"What the hell?" All emotions that played in Inuyasha for the whole night just found their outlet.

"I give you the last chance, you bastard. Leave. Now." He said through clenched teeth. _I will kill him, even if this would be the last fight of my life,_ he thought as he squeezed his hand around the hilt of his sword in anger.

"Inuyasha," a quiet voice reached him and he felt the delicate paw touching his arm, "Inuyasha, stop this…" Inuyasha looked down at the fragile kitsune that stood in his way.

"Move, Shippou, you may get hurt. He will leave or die!"

"No," Shippou did not let himself to be shoved aside by the hanoyu, "don't you understand?" His voice was quiet but strangely strong and direct, "He cannot leave."

"What?" Inuyasha blinked, Sesshomaru only shifted his gaze at the kitsune.

"He cannot leave her."

ooOoo

A/N: I wonder if this story tends to be a bit too confusing and if I should be more descriptive or something. Please, lat me know if it makes any sense to you –I welcome all feedbacks, they help me to write. AM


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